Weed Issue 2014: Green Dawn

It’s a new morning for pot in Portland. We clear the haze.

It’s true. There are
proteins called cannabinoid receptors just sitting up there, waiting to
be activated. Whenever you toke up, those molecules come alive. You know
that alleged Ben Franklin quote, “Beer is proof God wants us to be
happy”? When it comes to marijuana, that might be the literal truth.

Isn’t it about time,
then, to start thinking about pot the same way we think of beer, or
coffee, or any of Portland’s other favorite craft products? With
Washington and Colorado already making the leap into legalization—and
each state getting rewarded with a team in the Super Bowl—marijuana has
never been more mainstream. Gone are the days of gateway-drug fear
mongering and stoner stereotyping. A year ago in these pages, we
celebrated the final days of pot culture as we once knew it. Today, we
are living in an altered reality. The green dawn is here.

Overall
marijuana use by Americans skyrocketed 47 percent from 2007 to 2012.
That spike hasn’t been met with an increase in law enforcement—in fact,
the number of marijuana-related arrests fell 15 percent in the same
period. In other words, we’re burning much more bud than we did at the
end of the Bush administration, and yet far fewer of us are getting
busted.